This invention relates generally to imaging devices, and more particularly, to imaging devices with configurable interconnect fabric.
Modern electronic devices such as cellular telephones, cameras, and computers often use digital image sensors to capture images. In a typical arrangement, an electronic device with an image sensor is provided with an array of image sensor pixels (sometimes referred to as image pixels) that are arranged in pixel rows and columns. Row control circuitry is coupled to each pixel row to provide row control signals to the image pixels such as reset and transfer control signals. Column circuitry is typically coupled to each column for reading out image signals from the image pixels.
Conventional image sensors typically feature row circuitry that implements raster scan techniques to sequentially read out the image signals from an image pixel array. When performing a raster scan, column circuitry processes the read out image signals on a row-by-row basis for the entire image pixel array. Accessing image pixels on a row-by-row basis using the row and column circuitry requires scanning the entire image pixel array before adjustments are made to individual image pixel signals. Processing image data in this way greatly limits the performance of the image sensor.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide imaging devices with more flexible pixel access capabilities.